NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said that it is mulling for another tariff hike to take its ARPU (average revenue per user) to Rs 200 in per month in this calendar year. As per the reports, in a post-earnings call, Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said there might be another tariff hike, if not in the next three to four months, but later in the current calendar year itself.
He further said that the company won’t hesitate to lead in tariff hikes as it did last year. However, he also clarified that tariff hike would take place only after the current wave of SIM consolidation, caused by the last rounds of hikes, come down.
In November 2021, all the three telcos- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea-- hiked their prepaid tariff by 20-25%. Airtel, while increasing its tariff in November, said that ARPU needs to be Rs 200 and then reach Rs 300.
In its third-quarter result released on Tuesday, the company reported a 2.8% drop in its net profit to Rs 830 crore as against Rs 854 crore in the year-ago period. Its revenue from operations rose 13% year-on-year. However, the company improved its ARPU to Rs 163, up from `146 a year ago. “The full impact of the revised mobile tariffs will be visible in the fourth quarter,” said Vittal in the earnings statement. Bharti Airtel shares rose 1.55% to close at Rs 719.90 on the NSE on Wednesday.